House Committee Leaders Unite to Oppose Immunity for Telecoms

Washington, D.C. - Today, a formidable trio of House Committee Chairmen sent a stern letter to their colleagues urging them to oppose immunity for phone companies that assisted in the NSA's warrantless wiretapping program.

The White House is demanding that immunity for the telecoms be included in Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) legislation pending in Congress. But in today's letter -- written by John Dingell, Chairman of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce; Ed Markey, Chairman of the House Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet; and Bart Stupak, Chairman of the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations -- the congressmen argue that the president is creating a "false choice" for lawmakers.

"By tying the question of lawsuit immunity to questions of national security and Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) reform legislation, the President has created a false choice for Congress," the letter states. "The issue of immunity for phone companies that chose to cooperate with the President's warrantless wiretapping program deserves a separate and more deliberate examination by Congress. No special urgency attaches to the question of immunity other than the present Administration's general eagerness to limit tort liability and its desire to avoid scrutiny of its own actions, by either the courts or the Congress."

Earlier this week, more than two dozen House members sent a letter to the White House announcing their opposition to telecom immunity. Along with the Chairmen's letter, this may represent a significant shift in the political debate over telecom immunity. The Senate could complete work on the FISA Amendments Act, which includes immunity, as early as next week. In November, the House passed its own surveillance bill, the RESTORE Act, which does not grant immunity. The House will soon be negotiating with the Senate over how to reconcile those bills.

"Senators about to vote on immunity should heed the Chairmen's warning: tying the question of telecom immunity to that of FISA reform is unnecessary and dangerous," said Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) Senior Staff Attorney Kevin Bankston. "But if the Senate complies with the Administration's pleas to cover up its illegal spying and bail out the phone companies, then it's time for the House to step up and block immunity for lawbreaking telecom giants."

EFF represents the plaintiffs in Hepting v. AT&T, a class-action lawsuit brought by AT&T customers accusing the telecommunications company of violating their rights by illegally assisting the National Security Agency in widespread domestic surveillance. The Hepting case is just one of many suits aimed at holding telecoms responsible for knowingly violating federal privacy laws with warrantless wiretapping and the illegal transfer of vast amounts of personal data to the government.

For the full letter from Congressmen Dingell, Markey, and Stupak: http://www.eff.org/files/nsa/dingell.pdf

For the letter from the House members to the White House: http://lee.house.gov/index.cfm?ContentID=1206&ParentID=0&SectionID=4&SectionTree=4&lnk=b&ItemID=1201

For more on the telecoms' role in warrantless spying:
http://www.eff.org/issues/nsa-spying

Related Updates

It’s August. In the United States, that means members of Congress will be swinging back home to their home districts to check in with their state-side staffers, hit some fundraisers, and maybe host a few public events. You can meet them. Constituents can request meetings with members of Congress while...

WASHINGTON, D.C.—The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) asked the Supreme Court to review and overturn an unprecedented ruling allowing the government to intercept, collect, and store—without a warrant—millions of Americans’ electronic communications, including emails, texts, phone calls, and online chats. This warrantless surveillance is conducted by U.S. intelligence agencies...

San Francisco, California—While many technology companies continue to step up their privacy game by adopting best practices to protect sensitive customer information when the government demands user data, telecommunications companies are failing to prioritize user privacy when the government comes knocking, an EFF annual survey shows. Even tech giants such...

President Donald Trump’s pick to lead the FBI, Christopher Wray, will begin his confirmation process next week, giving lawmakers an opportunity to press him on his previous statements about expansive surveillance authorities and aggressive copyright prosecution. Defense of the USA PATRIOT Act During his tenure as Assistant Attorney General...

Lawmakers are getting serious about renewing the U.S. government’s Internet spying powers, so we need to get serious about stopping their bad proposals. First out of the gate is a bill from Sen. Tom Cotton, an ardent defender of government surveillance. His bill would not just reauthorize, but make permanent...

The U.S. government’s foreign surveillance law is so secretive that not even a service provider challenging an order issued by a secret court got to access it. That Kafkaesque episode—denying a party access to the law being used against it—was made public this week in a FISC opinion...

The U.S. government’s foreign surveillance law is so secretive that not even a service provider challenging an order issued by a secret court got to access it. That Kafkaesque episode—denying a party access to the law being used against it—was made public this week in a FISC opinion...

The U.S. government’s foreign surveillance law is so secretive that not even a service provider challenging an order issued by a secret court got to access it. That Kafkaesque episode—denying a party access to the law being used against it—was made public this week in a FISC opinion...

Lawmakers should know how the laws they pass impact their constituents. That’s especially true when the law would reauthorize a vast Internet and telephone spying program that collects information about millions of law-abiding Americans. But that’s exactly what the Intelligence Community wants Congress to do when it considers reauthorizing a...

The debate over expiring online spying powers is heating up. The Senate Intelligence Committee is holding an open hearing on Section 702, as enacted by the FISA Amendments Act, which is set to sunset at the end of the year. The House Judiciary Committee held its own hearing...